Meth-Face Imaging Software Puts Scare Into Kids

Face2Face

A California sheriff has helped a tech company develop 3D imaging software that can show people what their face would look like if they start and continue abusing methamphetamine for months and years. The results are shocking and compelling enough that law-enforcement agencies from L.A. to O.C. and even Okinawa, Japan have purchased the $3,000-plus "Face2Face" program for prevention efforts.

"We just started to use Face2Face recently, but the response is overwhelming," Mendocino community services officer Maureen Wattenburger told the website PoliceOne recently. "Juveniles, for example, are very concerned about their appearance and seem to be shocked when observing the 'before' and 'after' 3D images."

The scare tactics are no joke: Meth really does make you look worse than Joan Rivers on a plastic-surgery bender. (So, we're assuming the next program from the company will be called Nip2Tuck, featuring projections of what you would look like after years of scalpel abuse). Speed kills ... good looks.

"You're young," Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who helped develop the program, told NPR. "You're vibrant. You have great-looking skin. Your hair is there, your teeth are there. The software ... morphs it into causing the physiological effects that meth causes -- the open scabs, the droopy skin, the hair loss. It strikes at the vanity of teenagers."

The software uses a Fuji digital camera connected to a PC. Within 90 minutes, its makers promise, the program can spit out images of what a subject would look like after six months, one year and three years of meth use.

Check out the YouTube video.